Whincup quickest in practice

Ford's Jamie Whincup produced a late charge to take top spot during the practice session of the seventh round of the V8 Supercar series at Oran Park.

Whincup quickest in practice

11 August 2006

Ford's Jamie Whincup produced a late charge to take top spot during the practice session of the seventh round of the V8 Supercar series at Oran Park.

The Triple Eight Racing team driver rocketed to the fastest lap time with less than three minutes left in the two hour session, taking top spot with a 1min:09.0113sec lap time around the 2.2km circuit.

Holden Racing Team owner Mark Skaife, having led for the majority of the session, was second quickest in 1:09.1299.

A quartet of Commodores followed Skaife on the timesheets with Steven Richards (1:09.1842), Jason Richards (1:09.2032), championship leader Garth Tander (1:09.2307) and Rick Kelly (1:09.2629) completing the top six.

Defending event and series champion Russell Ingall was well back in 17th position (1:09.7429), meaning he must attempt to qualify in the bottom half of the field during Saturday's qualifying session.

Ford's Craig Lowndes, who trails Tander by 34 points in the championship, was ranked 11th with a 1:09.4855 best lap time.

Qualifying starts on Saturday from 1100 AEST with a 38 lap race from 1530 AEST.